MALICE IN BLUNDERLAND -

A SIMPLE SOLUTION?

So, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is to face an inquiry by Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, John Lyon, into her claiming £116,000 `second home allowance,` which I ranted about a few days ago. On the face of it, this seems like a good move. But it seems the formal complaints made to the Commissioner stem from a couple of near neighbours in the street where Jacqui Smith`s sister has a house, wherein Jacqui rents a room at `market rate` which she claims is her main residence - instead of the family home in Redditch which she shares with her husband and two children.

I suspect the Commissioner`s Inquiry will take months and doubtless the full force and resources available to the Home Secretary will be brought to bear to demonstrate the number of nights a week she spends with her sister, the number of occasions her security officers are in attendance and much more. The whole issue may get buried in detail, in claim and counter claim, in the neighbour`s word against the government establishment, in the time and expense of it all and the emergence of other events to deflect attention. Not to mention, of course, the track record of successive Commissioners who find it difficult to find against the government for fear of their contracts not being renewed - remember the estimable Elizabeth Filkin, sacked because she was too good, too thorough and too independant?

But in all the shuffling around, in all the tabloid hand-wringing, there are at least two aspects of this whole affair that stand out. The first is the moral issue. Now, our (Second) Home Secretary steadfastly asserts that she `has not broken any rules` and she may be right. But where is the morality in claiming £116,000 of taxpayers` money for a questionable domestic arrangement? And, perhaps more tellingly, where is the morality in claiming anything at all when a rent free grace and favour luxury apartment which, as Home Secretary she is entitled to, is hers for the asking?

And so the simple solution is clear and obvious. Any Minister of the Crown who is entitled to taxpayer-funded, high security, rent free, grace and favour London accommodation should simply be required to take it up. Too simple? Probably. After all, it would be a bit like expecting turkeys to vote for Christmas. But it would be right and proper and see an end to the nonsense about to consume time and resources for a wholly predictable outcome.